Author's note: Thanks again for the reviews. Hope you enjoy the next chapter!


The beginnings of a friendship

We left my house and walked a few blocks before Sirius stopped a Muggle car.

"Whereto?" the driver growled.

"Piccadilly Circus."

The car sped off and I held on to Sirius. I had only been a couple of times in a car and never in a taksi, or whatever he just said it was.

After a blood-curdling ride we stopped at Piccadilly Circus. I got out of the death-vehicle and looked around. Muggle-London was fascinating. It was absolutely crowded, signs were flashing everywhere, music was coming from all sorts of places, familiar and unfamiliar smells.

Sirius had paid the taksi-man and put his arm around my waist. "We have to go over there," he pointed at a large building.

"So, where are you taking me?"

"I am taking you to the cinema."

"Ooh, isn't that where they show those film-story things? I've never been to a cimena before," I said excitedly. "I love stories."

He smiled relieved at me. "I'm glad you like it. Come on, let's get tickets."

"How do you know about all that Muggle-stuff? You're a pure-blood like me."

"I take Muggle Studies," he explained.

"You take Muggle Studies!"

Didn't see that one coming.

He chuckled at my expression. "Just to piss off my parents of course, but it's not so bad actually."

We walked inside the cimena and Sirius bought the tickets. Then he took me to another counter. Still peering at the tickets he asked, "Would you like some popcorn?"

Utterly bewildered I stared at him. "Why on earth would I want popped corn?"

The girl behind the counter gave me a strange look. Sirius grinned at my confusion and whispered in my ear that it was a Muggle candy.

"Oh, well, I'll give it a try."

"Would you like it sweet- or salty-flavoured, Miss?" the girl asked.

"Er… sweet, please."

"Sweet? You? That's a surprise," Sirius drawled. I glowered at him and accepted the popped corn from the girl.

Sirius also ordered something called cokes, that turned out to be drinks. After he had paid, we walked to the room where they would show the film. They had these extraordinary seats that folded themselves when you got up – I couldn't get enough of them. Sirius watched me amusedly while I got in and out of my seat excitedly. Finally I settled down and decided to try the drink.

I nearly spat it out again. "It fizzes," I hissed at Sirius.

"Yeah, don't you like it?" he said and took a gulp himself. I watched for a moment what the drink would do to him. Apparently it didn't kill him, so I took a little sip myself.

It was such a funny feeling, but the drink was delicious. I took one of the popped corn thingies and carefully put it in my mouth. It didn't do anything unexpected so I tried chewing on it. I ate another one, and another one…

"So," I said, turning my attention to Sirius, after licking my fingers, "which film are we seeing?"

"It's called Days of Heaven. It's about Muggle history. You told me you like history – Merlin only knows why," he added in an undertone, "so I thought you might like a film about something historical."

"I do. That's so nice of you." I was really surprised and touched. I smiled at him and he smiled back. I just stared in his stormy eyes. He cupped my cheek and kissed me till all the lights went out.

He was right. I loved the film. It was about a man and a woman, Bill and Abby, pretending to be brother and sister, at the beginning of the century. They had a hard time trying to make a living, so when Bill gets an offer to work for a farmer in Texas, they immediately accept it. The farmer, who is rich and handsome, falls in love with the woman and Abby and Bill, who is actually her lover, decide that she'll marry the farmer, because he is very ill. It doesn't work out, of course, because jealousy steps in and Bill is getting impatient, so disaster is just waiting to happen.

After the film, which I couldn't stop talking about, Sirius took me clubbing in a Muggle-club. I tried so many drinks, that everything started spinning. The music was great and I pulled Sirius onto the dance-floor. He was getting loads of admiring looks from girls and for some reason that really bothered me.

Must be the alcohol.

While I was still wondering whether hexing a particularly persistent girl into a pimple break-out was appropriate use of magic, Sirius pulled me close for a deep kiss and then said, "You can stop giving that girl over there those death glares now. I'm not interested in her."

"I wasn't doing that," I said, blushing.

"Are you sure? Because she looks like she's about to cry."

Feeling very bold – and drunk – I put my arms around him and pressed my body against his. "I had to scare her off. I'm very territorial. One more minute and I would've started sharpening my claws."

He burst out laughing. "I think you've had enough to drink, Niamh. Come on, we still have to get back to Hogwarts."

"Why don't we spend the night at my house?" My voice was husky and he knew exactly what I had in mind.

He didn't hesitate, smirked and grabbed my hand. "Let's go."


At the Cardens'

Sirius watched her sleeping. She lay on her side, arms propped under the pillow. The sheets were barely covering her hips, giving him a very nice view. He gently pushed her hair out of her face. She smiled fleetingly, but didn't wake up.

He wound a curl around his finger. He loved her hair. She could be so cold and distant on the outside, but it seemed her hair showed what was really inside. Fire and wildness. He let go of her hair and followed the curve of her lips with his finger and cupped her cheek. She had been sleeping restlessly earlier, frowning and moaning, until he had taken her in his arms. He had a hunch what was troubling her, but he knew instinctively that she wouldn't tell him until she trusted him.

Suddenly he felt very weird and it hit him that he wanted her to trust him. He wanted to protect her from what was hurting her.

He knew that she saw him as nothing more than someone to shag and he had been fine with that. It was what he wanted too. He had never wanted any girl to be more than that. But now… It just didn't seem enough anymore.

"Of all the girls you can have, Padfoot, you choose this one," he said to himself, shaking his head. He grumbled and rolled over to his side of the bed to look at the clock and saw that it was 12 already.

"Shit! We're going to be fucked!" he said loudly.

"Didn't we already do that?" a sleepy voice mumbled behind him.

"Good morning, sunshine," he smiled at Niamh, "or should I say good afternoon?"

Her eyes widened. "Afternoon? Oh no, we're fucked." She rolled out of the bed and started looking for her clothes.

"I told you so."

"Where is my bra, for Merlin's sake?"

Sirius took the bra from the doorknob and handed it to her. She quickly put it on and grabbed her skirt.

"Aren't you forgetting something?"

"What?"

He held up her panties.


The other side of the bed

Good point.

I grabbed my panties and finished getting dressed. I walked over to the mirror to untangle my hair, but one look in the mirror convinced me that that was going to prove impossible, so I just pulled it back in a ponytail.

"Okay, let's go."

"You know we have to Apparate back to the gates, right? You can't Apparate inside the castle."

I was impressed. "Wow, you read Hogwarts: A History?"

"No, I tried Disapparating once and it was really painful."

I rolled my eyes. Why am I not surprised? "Don't forget your cloak."

"Got it."

We Apparated back to Hogwarts – I was quite nervous, because I had never Apparated to the Hogwarts gates before, but everything went fine – and we headed back to the castle. When the map showed that everything was safe, we kissed goodbye and I hurried to my dorm and took a shower. Emerging from the bathroom half an hour later, I found Lana sitting on my bed, looking squeaky-clean and very bright. As I was suffering from a hangover myself, I found her beaming face unbearable to watch.

"Don't worry, I covered for you," she declared.

"Thanks."

"So, what did you do?"

I sat next to her on the bed, beaming. "He took me to London. We went to see a film, which was fabulous by the way. Have you ever seen a film? They're moving pictures, but not like photographs. Hours of it!"

"Not all of us are raised in complete ignorance of the rest of the world."

Right.

I was feeling a bit dumb now, but Lana motioned me to continue. "Anyway, after that we went clubbing in a Muggle-club and now I feel like I've been run over by a hippogriff."

Lana roared with laughter. "Let me guess. You tried every Muggle-drink you could."

"Guilty."

"Oh, you're so daft sometimes, Niamh. Muggle-drinks have a lot of alcohol in them. They're nothing like Butterbeer, or Firewhisky even. I'm surprised you even made it back here."

"Well, I didn't actually. We spent the night at my London house. Only we forgot to sleep for a while, so when we finally woke up, it was 12 o'clock already."

Lana sniggered. "No need to ask why you forgot to sleep." She made a very rude gesture and I laughed.

"You and George probably did the same."

Lana sighed overemotionally.

"What?" I was at a loss. "Didn't he want to…" Highly unlikely, but you never know…

"No, he wanted to," she said with a sorry face, "and we did, but it's just that it…" She looked really sad now.

"Oh my God, what's wrong?"

Lana took a deep breath. "It was awful," she cried out in despair.

My jaw dropped. "What do you mean 'it was awful'?"

Lana gave me an annoyed look. "I didn't feel anything. Nothing. He just didn't turn me on. And I am not a difficult person to satisfy, Niamh." She shouted the last line at me.

Aw, too much detail.

"Maybe that was just because you don't like him enough. I mean, I can't imagine being turned on by George either, or -- or by" – examples, please – "Severus, or Barclay Nott, can you?"

Lana bit her lip and looked highly disconcerted.

"My God, Lana, when?"

"Last year with Severus, one time."

Don't try to imagine that in your head, don't do it, don't -- damn! Too late…

"My turn to guess: you did get turned on."

She nodded.

"And with Barclay?"

"At the New Year's Party."

"Lana!"

"Don't lecture me! I had too much to drink. I can't help it."

"I won't. Let's just focus on the problem. We can safely assume that you've never had any problems getting turned on by any guy, right?"

"Right."

"So, it's easy then."

"It is?"

"Yes, it's George's fault. He just sucks at it."

Lana's face brightened. "You're right! Why didn't I think of that?"

"There you go. No problem."

"I'll just tell him he doesn't have what I need and I'll move on."

"Er… Lana?"

"Yes?"

"Perhaps you could be a little more delicate about it. Most men don't take it too well if their... er... skills are doubted." Just a suggestion.

"Good point. I'll be gentle."

I walked over to my mirror and put some make-up on. Lana stood behind me, adjusting her hair.

"Niamh? About you and Sirius…"

"What about us?"

"Are you two getting serious?"

I missed my eyelashes and poked myself in the eye with my mascara. "Damn it!"

"You okay?"

"Yes, just -- you caught me off-guard."

"Well, it's a normal question. You have been spending a lot of time together, you know."

I know. And it's scaring the hell out of me…

"So, are you getting serious?"

"I don't know, Lana. I mean, Sirius isn't really the type for relationships, is he? I like him, and he is funny and… still arrogant, of course, but in a funny way. We get along surprisingly well. But he is Sirius Black, the number one blood traitor. I can't have a relationship with him. Besides, he probably doesn't even want to."

Lana sighed. "I'm glad my family isn't like yours. It must be very difficult sometimes."

"Yeah, it is. Sometimes I wish I could just get away from it all. You know my mother is trying to hook me up with Evan Rosier? She keeps writing me letters about how much he's asked about me. I bet it's the other way around, that she's telling him all sorts of things he doesn't want to know. Embarrassing, really. I'm eight years younger, practically a child to him," I snorted.

Lana shook her head. "You haven't even graduated yet!"

"Well, you know my mother, she was planning my marriage to Lucius when I was in my fifth year, remember."

"So what are you going to do?"

"What can I do? I'll have to marry Evan or some other wizard they approve of if I don't want to lose my family. My mother stood up for me once, but she's not going to do it again."

Lana remained silent.

"What?"

"Nothing. It just sucks."

"Yes, it does."


I didn't have much time to worry about, because N.E.W.T. revisions were coming up and the teachers buried us under humungous piles of homework.

I spent most of my time in the library, meeting Remus Lupin a lot. I knew he had found out about me and Sirius and he seemed to want to speak to me. When we were sitting not too far from each other, he would look at me, open his mouth, change his mind, and return to his study.

After a week of this, I had enough of it and I went over to him. "Remus?"

"Yes?" I seemed to have startled him.

"I wonder if you could explain this to me. I know you're very good at Ancient Rhunes, so would you mind?"

Remus looked a bit taken aback, but invited me politely to sit with him. "So what do you need my help for?"

"Well, it's this part over here." I pointed the passage in my book out to him. "Are you supposed to read it from left to right, or from right to left? I can't figure it out."

"From right to left. See? Then you get a translation that makes -- well, at least a bit sense," he grinned.

"Oh, right. So you have to translate mahriz with heaven then, not sky."

Yes, and sharihaz means to ascend here, not to lift."

"I got it. Thanks."

"You're welcome."

I noticed the book lying in front of him. "Merlin! Ancient Wizard-kings and their Realms! Where did you get that? It's so rare."

"My father is a collector," he smiled.

"That's wonderful."

"It is. He specializes in ancient -- " Remus looked up.

Lana stomped into the library, looked around and headed towards us. "I can't believe him!" she said loudly.

Madame Pince shot a warning glare at her. She dropped in a chair next to me.

"Who?" I asked.

"George!" she hissed.

I sighed. "What happened?"

"I went over to him and said I wanted to talk to him. So we went for a walk around the lake. I told him I thought we shouldn't see each other anymore, that it was all my fault, that I couldn't get turned on by him and HE GOT ANGRY!"

Remus's face changed colour.

"Can you believe it?" Lana continued in a low voice, after another glare from the librarian.

"I told you to be delicate about it," I scolded her.

Remus was highly embarrassed.

"What do you mean, delicate? I was extremely delicate. I told him it wasn't his fault, didn't I?" She turned to Remus. "Remus, darling, you're a man. What's his problem?"

Remus opened and closed his mouth in shock. "Well -- he -- it could be -- maybe it had something to do with the fact that you said he couldn't -- you know -- he couldn't…er…"

"…satisfy me?" Lana helped him. Remus managed to turn an even more violent shade of red. I felt a little sorry for him. He obviously had no experience in dealing with Lana.

"That, yes."

"Honestly," Lana huffed, "men are so sensitive. Well, I'm off. I'm meeting Gareth to revise Charms."

"Sure you are," I replied dryly. She winked at us and strolled out of the library.

Remus and I glanced at each other and burst into a fit of laughter, which we quickly muffled.

"Is she always like that?" Remus sniggered.

"Oh, much worse," I smiled, "but it's alright. I've got a manual."

Remus laughed again.

"That's it, you two! Out of my library," Madame Pince shrieked. "This is supposed to be a place of study! Out!"

We quickly grabbed our books and exited.

"You know, if you want to borrow that book," Remus said, a little awkwardly, "you can, if you like."

I smiled. "That would be great. Thanks."

"You're welcome."

Well, bye," I said.

"See you, Niamh."


A/N: The movie in this chapter is a real movie, from roughly around the same period as this is taking place. I was really happy when I found it, because it has somewhat of a link with my own story...

Anyway, reviews are very welcome!